


The Bile Coven

by Sepublic



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Body Horror, Cliffhanger, Fanon, Halloween, Mad Science, One Shot, Unethical Experimentation, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27313411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sepublic/pseuds/Sepublic
Summary: During the early years of Belos' reign, there was a sub-division where the Potions and Healing Covens merged, respectively. Members of this coven sought to understand the nature and secrets of what they saw as the raw essence of magic, where it all came from and ended- Knowledge of Glyphs had long since faded, so these witches worked with a much more limited understanding of magic than they anticipated. Perhaps this, then, can account for their failures in their experiments... Amidst their own moral failures compelling them to do the atrocious, and eventually rebel against the Emperor himself- Not for the sake of liberation, but to install their own dictatorship.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	The Bile Coven

**Author's Note:**

> Back during the mid-season hiatus, I wrote this speculative piece of worldbuilding for fun and planned to post it during Halloween. And, the time has come! Looking back at it now, especially in lieu of our proper reveal of Belos, it definitely comes across as a bit outdated... Specifically Belos' actions in this are a tad OOC. This WAS written back when everyone thought his name was Bellows, so we didn't have much to work with! Still, I thought it'd be fun to post this, just for the sake of it and to see how far we've come... And it's The Owl House, it deserves something a little bit spooky!

Now considered to be an outlawed, terrorist group and largely forbidden by the Emperor’s Coven, the Bile Coven was a subset of the Potions Coven, with a few members of the Healing Coven assigned as well. It was established by Emperor Belos to perform research into matters of the source of a witch’s magic, the bile sac attached to their heart.

Members of the Bile Coven were skilled scientists and alchemists with an intimate understanding of witch anatomy. Their primary research involved the extraction of safe, controllable doses of bile from witch volunteers for study. Research conducted by the Bile Coven would be towards understanding the properties of magic bile, the extent and nature of its power, how best to harness it, and its multiple uses and applications in elixirs and potions. The subject of bile sac transplants was also on the mind of the Bile Coven as they discussed the possibility of granting non-witches access to magic; However, such a prospect would of course be heavily legislated by the Emperor’s Coven were it to become possible.

‘Bile Brewers’, as many members of the Bile Coven were colloquially called, conducted research into magic bile and its effects on the body, how much the body could sustain it, etc. Its lead researcher at the time, Zaphe, an esteemed graduate of Glandus’ Potion Track, was determined to unlock the secrets of magic bile, which he dubbed, “The stuff of life.” A charismatic individual, Zaphe attracted many would-be witches into joining the Bile Coven and became the de facto, unofficial leader of the Bile Brewers. Progress on the Bile Coven was frequently checked upon by Emperor Bellows, but as time passed and other issues arose, the Bile Coven was able to perform more experiments and research in the longer durations of time between check-ups and examinations.

The Bile Coven became controversial when it was later discovered that, in order to fuel their research, members were illegally harvesting larger amounts of bile from test subjects than was permitted. As time passed, the preeminent founders of the Bile Coven also began to feel their age and deterioration, and Zaphe, the eldest of the Bile Coven, became concerned over the subject of immortality.

Although punishments had been assigned for the mishap, as well as reduced funding and strict regulations, the Bile Coven continued its work with Zaphe as its lead researcher. Unbeknownst to the general public and the Emperor’s Coven, Zaphe and his Bile Brewers were beginning to conduct secretive, illegal operations in order to conduct unfettered experiments on the nature of magic bile. They paid various criminals to harvest bile from unsuspecting strangers, before outright engaging in the kidnapping of homeless populations. The Bile Coven requested magical prisoners from the Conformatorium on the basis of science, many of said prisoners being scheduled for death row. Nomadic Demon Hunter tribes were paid hefty sums in exchange for large quantities of smaller demons to conduct research upon.

Unfortunate witches would be tied up, imprisoned and hooked up to large machines that regularly drained the bile from their sacs, before letting the witches rest and replenish themselves with stale nutrition retrieved by the Bile Coven. The process was incredibly painful, exhaustive, and had an incredibly negative effect on those harvested; Many of whom were rescued would later suffer from future health problems, some dying shortly after. Others outright couldn’t handle the constant cycle of being drained to the utmost minimum of their bile, being given only just enough to thrive- They died in captivity.

If the crimes and atrocities of the Bile Coven accomplished anything, it was that Zaphe discovered a means through which magic bile could be amassed, stored, and later pumped and injected directly into another witch. Although issues of compatibility were always prevalent, Zaphe nevertheless demonstrated the properties of bile to enhance the power, growth, and metabolism of individuals. Test subjects became faster, stronger, and had more acute senses. Their spells were more effortlessly powerful, if less refined. Physical alterations came about as a result of constant exposure to increased dosages of bile, as if the body was restructuring itself to consume and be made up of magic bile.

This of course, had its consequences. Many subjects died of the overwhelming shock of energy coming from an overdose. Others suffered fatal heart attacks as bile clogged up their arteries. In response to this, the Bile Coven constructed a series of mechanical enhancements, pumps, filters, and other augmentations to be attached to a subject’s body, in order to aid in the flow and distribution of magic bile throughout the body.

However, subjects also suffered from another issue- Bile propelled the growth, but in some cases it could cause _too_ much growth as flesh absorbed the nutritious bile and began to expand. Cancerous tumors and other growths consumed the bodies of many subjects.

Those who suffered from neither of the aforementioned effects, nevertheless were privy to the most inescapable consequence of bile enhancements; Addiction. As their bodies became accustomed to larger doses, demanding more in order to function and fuel powerful processes, the Bile Coven began to require larger quantities of bile in order to fuel their experiments. Without a constant dosage of bile to sustain their altered forms, subjects’ forms would begin to wilt and collapse in on themselves, as they became deprived of the very substance that was now taking its role as the building block of their bodies. Extreme withdrawal symptoms, as well as hallucinations became prevalent. Subjects removed cold-turkey from regular bile dosages quickly withered, their bodies decaying and beginning to undergo necrosis. Organ functions shut down, and without a constant stream of bile to keep themselves alive, all subjects died.

Whether or not Zaphe and his Bile Brewers conducted research into seeing if a subject could be weaned gradually off of their bile addiction, is unknown. It seems Zaphe had no intention of treading back on what he had discovered. He began to have delusions of grandeur, believing he had unlocked the ‘next stage of evolution’ for witches; That soon, witches would become gods, and that someday, they would metamorphosize into beings of pure magic.

The credibility of these claims and visions is questionable at best. However, Zaphe and his followers were convinced; Anyone who felt their conscience in conflict with the Bile Coven’s new aims was quickly silenced and harvested for their own bile. Many of these unethical operations and experiments were hidden from the Emperor’s Coven, as regulations and check-ups began to cease as time passed from the initial controversy of taking in larger bile doses from volunteers.

As the Bile Coven toyed with its subjects, experiments, accidents, and other discoveries of danger and consequence led to the demise of most subjects. Bile supplies were running low, as those harvested for their bile could not supply enough magic at the rates demanded by the subjects. Test subjects were becoming scarcer, as those who did survive found their requirement for bile to be growing exponentially larger. The Bile Coven attempted to appeal Emperor Belos for more funding and prisoners from the Conformatorium. When questioned on the exact nature of the experiments that required these resources, Zaphe refused to answer or elaborate. Without sufficient evidence of progress, the Bile Coven was denied its requests.

Desperation, combined with arrogance and recklessness, motivated Zaphe into performing mad actions. Unable to afford payments to mercenaries and criminals and not trusting them, the Bile Brewers kidnapped disgraced members of the Construction Coven had them engineer new devices. These led to the creation of mechanical automatons, dubbed as ‘Spiles’ for their sole purpose of extracting magic bile from witches.

Unlike typical harvesting machines, the Spiles were autonomous and greatly mobile, possessing agile movements and flight. Resembling giant mosquitoes, each Spile possessed a large, needle proboscis, as well as lesser syringes functioning as talons, to pierce witches’ bodies and access their bile sacs. From there, a Spile would use sophisticated pumps to drain the victim of virtually all of their magic bile, storing the substance within their own hollow forms before flying off. Spiles would then seek more victims until full, at which point they would fly back to the Bile Coven’s base of operations to deposit their gains.

The exact nature of the Spiles is unknown, and public knowledge on the dissections conducted by the Healing Coven has been banned. Their obedient natures would seemingly indicate similarities to Abominations, but nothing is certain.

Under the cover of darkness, the Spiles were sent out by Zaphe to drain magic bile from the ‘undesirables’ of society, such as criminals on the run, hobos, black market trades, etc. Of course, eyebrows were raised when the Emperor’s Guard discovered a series of murders where all victims had their chests pierced and their bile sacs drained completely dry. Knowledge of the Bile Coven’s involvement with the Spiles was at the time unknown, but suspicions were of course cast.

As Boiling Isles citizens and the Emperor’s Coven began to pressure Zaphe for knowledge on the intricacies and exact details of his ‘work’, Zaphe began to feel the pressures of old age, deteriorating health, and sickness. Aid by the finest researchers in the Healing Coven and the most exquisite elixirs of the Potions Coven wasn’t doing what it used to. Under orders from Emperor Belos himself, the Conformatorium began to stop supplying the Bile Coven with test subjects. High on the belief that he was a genius, Zaphe and his followers finally resorted to testing their own experiments on themselves, injecting themselves with controlled dosages of magic bile and feeling its effects.

Some were unable to handle the build-up of energy in their bodies and deteriorated- Others survived and transformed, their bodies becoming highly dependent on bile as augmentations were grafted to their forms to facilitate an increase dosage. Zaphe and his followers, now worshipping his research, Zaphe himself, and magic bile as an ‘elixir of life’, began to suffer madness from the physical changes of bile, in addition to their preexisting delusions. Zaphe and his cult became more reclusive and began to neglect on supplying reports to Belos about the Bile Coven’s progress and research.

Inevitably, the Bile Coven was discovered to be behind the Spiles and their murders. An arrest warrant went out for Zaphe and all of his followers in the Bile Coven. Confronted, Zaphe and his cult holed themselves up in their base of operations, declaring to the public that the time for progress and evolution was nigh, that the weak would be purged, and other stupid things like that. Zaphe proclaimed that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, and who was to argue about the Bile Coven sacrificing the freaks, undesirables, and lesser demons to bolster the prosperity of the proper and worthy?

Public opinion indicated that this was an unpopular view, and accordingly Emperor Belos led an assault to break into the Bile Coven’s headquarters and apprehend the Brewers. Zaphe, accusing Boiling Isles society and Emperor Belos especially for fearing his power, announced a revolution and coup d’etat. Zaphe now aimed to supplant Belos as Emperor of the Boiling Isles, and declared that under his rule, witches would ascend to new heights of immortality and godhood.

Even if such claims were true, they would clearly become unsustainable- But Zaphe and his Bile Brewers were now willing to sacrifice the entire world for their aims. A lethal battle was held at the Bile Coven’s headquarters as the Emperor’s Coven, Guard, and the fruits of the Abomination and Beast-Keeping Coven clashed with the enhanced Bile Brewers and their Spiles. The battle ended with the Bile Coven on the retreat, and Zaphe and his followers were declared Public Enemy No. 1 by Emperor Belos. An arrest warrant was sent out alongside several bounties, with Zaphe himself procuring a bounty of up to a trillion snails for his arrest/capture and/or assassination.

Operating from a hidden headquarters, the Bile Coven, now a full-on terrorist organization, executed nightly hunts and raids of unsuspecting victims with its Spiles, harvesting them for bile as Zaphe and his followers distorted from increased and prolonged exposure. Despite their efforts to evade and combat the Emperor’s Coven, the Bile Coven was doomed- Thankfully, their Coven bindings continued to persist through even the grisliest of their augmentations. With their abilities limited to Potions Magic, with the exception of a few recent followers and inductees, the Bile Coven found themselves short-changed, with even their enhanced power unable to make up for their lack of diversity in skill and ability.

Against the Emperor’s Coven, the Bile Coven found many of its Spiles destroyed, and its researchers captured and detained, with those imprisoned in the Conformatorium shortly dying from withdrawal, their disturbing corpses dissected by the Healing Coven for medical examination and study.

Zaphe became even more reclusive and dependent on magic bile. The Emperor’s Coven made work on disassembling and deconstructing the Bile Coven’s gains, even hiring bounty hunters and mercenaries to deal with the Bile Brewers and Spiles. The Bile Coven’s newly-established sanctum, the core of their research and bile stores was finally located. Emperor Belos himself personally led an assault on the sanctum, razing the structure to the ground. Many lives were lost, several of Zaphe’s followers wiped out or captured, countless Spiles shattered as bile bled all over the ground. Zaphe himself was reportedly slain by none other than Belos himself, his body dissipating from having lost its physical substance due to overreliance of bile as a material.

Any remaining escapees and survivors of the Bile Coven were quickly tracked down and apprehended, most executed, the rest imprisoned for life before shortly succumbing to withdrawal. A few select prisoners were kept alive with bile dosages, with the aim of decreasing them as time went on in the hopes of reversing the effects. Progress of these attempts is currently bound to only select researchers in the Healing Coven.

The Bile Coven as a legal institution was completely abolished, and all Spiles were disassembled and destroyed. Emperor Belos subsequently banned practically all research onto the subject of magic bile, and imposed heavy regulations on what few experiments were allowed to be conducted- Said experiments are now constantly under scrutiny by the Emperor’s Coven. Zaphe’s research notes and studies, what remained of them, were compiled as evidence and are currently in unknown whereabouts.

If one is to research into bile for a school project, be cautious as the Emperor’s Coven has warned all librarians to be on high alert for any interest in the matter. The deaths, mutilation, and devastation caused by the Bile Coven lingers heavily on several minds. The trauma has only eased a little, and it may be a long time, if not forever, before a new Bile Coven is created, devoid of the sins of its predecessor. The Boiling Isles continues to be haunted by the old pains and atrocities of the Bile Coven, and its heart weighs heavily to those whose lives were lost to its numerous crimes.

-

Unbeknownst to the Boiling Isles Society and even Emperor Belos himself, Zaphe actually survived with a select few of his followers. Recovering what little they could –some harvesting machines, equipment, research notes and a few Spiles- they retreated into the cover of darkness, their survival unknown.

Languishing in disgrace over their defeat, Zaphe and his Bile Brewers, now limited to a percentage of their former numbers, established a new hideout. Discussions were held about how, now, to survive and sustain their bile addiction. Zaphe grimly calculcated his next plan of operations, and how to circumvent the limits he found when combating Emperor Belos’ reign.

To himself, Zaphe came to the conclusion that their bile resources were being wasted on too many ‘unworthy’ disciples. To remedy this, he made a list of those Bile Brewers he trusted as followers and confidants, with the rest scheduled to be harvested by their own peers.

Secondly, the Coven Bindings placed onto them by Belos contributed heavily to the Bile Coven’s downfall. Unable to find a way to remove his bindings and feeling his deteriorating health, Zaphe somewhat accepted his fate and became devoted to achieving immortality in another way- Through a legacy of successors and apprentices.

Zaphe came to the epiphany that he would not become the pinnacle of life- But rather, he would help foster, nourish, and sustain it, before eventually giving himself up to it. He needed successors, those who were young and able, their bodies not already marred by years of imperfect research, trial and discovery, and mistakes. Zaphe needed young witches with power, skill, and ambition- And perhaps most importantly of all, he needed witches who weren’t restricted by Coven Bindings, witches who could overcome the limits that he and his generation of Bile Brewers were marred by.

Accessing hidden stores of magic bile, Zaphe and his select few chosen sacrificed the rest to be harvested for their bile, or simply killed so they would not utilize resources. Zaphe and his cult hid on the very fringes of the Boiling Isles, sending out what few Spiles remained on secretive missions to continue harvesting bile from the unnoticeable and outcast. Care was given in instruction to dispose of bodies so that deaths could only be recorded as disappearances. Zaphe became cautious and frugal with how much bile was harvested, stored, and used to sustain himself and his last few peers.

Zaphe himself conducted a sweep of the Boiling Isles and seized twelve orphans as his own. Adopting these children, he dubbed these chosen successors ‘The Malebranche’ and raised them on stories of the Bile Coven’s old glory, whilst also warning them of their predecessors’ mistakes and explaining how to avoid these limits when the time came. Years of indoctrination came into play as Zaphe laid plans out for him and his followers to give up their own bile, transferring every last drop to the newly-grown Malebranche when they became of age. From there, Zaphe would live on in a sense in a select apprentice, the peak of the Malebranche and their class.

A lone witch, Malacoda, rose above her peers as the pinnacle of the Malebranche. She was the most devoted, most ambitious, most cunning and clever of the group. She showed the most promise and skill in studying Bile and her own plans to expand on it, even creating her own plans for a return to power for the Bile Coven once she assumed control. For this, Malacoda was granted the prestigious honor of inheriting Zaphe’s own bile, and he began to personally mentor her as his own apprentice.

When the time came, the Spiles would strike, harvesting as much bile as they could in preparation for the ceremony. Malacoda and the rest of the Malebranche would receive Zaphe and his followers’ bile, becoming the new generation of Bile Brewers, unhindered by any Coven Bindings. They would conduct a new, large-scale operation to ensure that Malacoda could grace the very height of life and evolution itself.

**Author's Note:**

> And yes, I was VERY much inspired by the Soul Sanctum from Hollow Knight, while taking a few cues from Resident Evil as well! And as I said, Belos is a little OOC here in that he's someone who would VERY much approve of the Bile Coven's experiments, and if his condition is any indication- Probably would've subjected himself to the same kind of experimentation! I mean I guess there's the justification of "Maybe Belos DID approve of it secretly but then the Bile Coven rebelled, and THAT became an issue," but still. I wouldn't put it past him to publically disapprove of the Bile Coven's experiments, and then turn around and do the exact same stuff in secret using the research notes he seized- He did lie about Eda's petrification being the first one in thirty years, after all. I'm not exactly sure where this story would fit within the timeline now that the latter half of Season 1 has aired, and I might not even bother to figure it out because this is just a spooky short-story that I don't really plan to elaborate upon. Still, it was fun and nostalgic to bring it back up for this occasion!


End file.
